heating up cancer cells to cure it

I found this article on the CBS site. When I was following research that said if cancer cells are heated up to above 107F they die.

Though the heat wont harm normal cells. It might get a bit uncomfortable though

cheers Ray

(CBS) Cancer remains the second-leading cause of death in the United States. Now, doctors are experimenting with a promising, yet basic tool to fight it: heat. CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Kaledin takes a look at how they're trying to do it.

When Emma Jean Wilson found a lump in her breast, doctors told her the prognosis was bleak. The cancer was "very rare," she says. "About one in three million, and only one percent is in your breast."

It was angio-sarcoma. Rather than rely on chemotherapy and radiation alone, Wilson decided to turn up the heat on her treatment — literally. She enrolled in a clinical trial at the Duke University Medical Center, becoming one of thousands of volunteers who, along with doctors, are hoping that something as simple as heat can improve standard cancer treatment.

"They said, 'what we'll do is we'll fix a table and your breast will lay in a bath of water and we'll sort of microwave your breast' ... and I said 'what?'? Wilson laughs. "That's really what it is."

Duke is one of a handful of research institutions pioneering a new field called hyperthermia. While scientists have known for centuries that heat has healing powers, Duke's Mark Dewhirst has figured out how to harness that heat and direct it right into tumors.

"The temperatures that we are looking for are at the range between 104 and 113 degrees Fahrenheit," Dewhirst says. "At that range, we get the effects we want but we don't burn the tissue."

Wilson says the treatment can get uncomfortable by the end of a session, but the benefits may well be worth the discomfort.

Dewhirst and his colleagues know that the heat weakens tumors in two crucial ways: It damages tumors' cells and it makes the tumors more vulnerable to radiation and chemotherapy

"We can deliver 30 times more drug to a tumor like this than you can with just the free drug itself," he says.

The Duke team is turning up the heat on some of the most stubborn cancers: breast, melanoma, cervical and ovarian. They're designing and developing intricate heating systems as they go. In the next several months, they'll be able to use new equipment to heat up entire bodies in people whose cancer has spread.

Once this study is over, the next step is to get heat therapy approved by the FDA and on the market. That will probably take a few years. But the goal, says Dewhirst, is to one day soon have heat actually being "prescribed," just like a drug.

"I would hope we can have dramatic anti-tumor effects," he says when asked if heat can be a cure. "Whether or not we can cure them is hard to know."

But for now, Wilson isn't worried about a cure. She's content to sit back and think warm — really warm — thoughts.

Cancer remains the second-leading cause of death in the United States. Now, doctors are experimenting with a promising, yet basic tool to fight it: heat. CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Kaledin takes a look at how they're trying to do it.

When Emma Jean Wilson found a lump in her breast, doctors told her the prognosis was bleak. The cancer was "very rare," she says. "About one in three million, and only one percent is in your breast."

It was angio-sarcoma. Rather than rely on chemotherapy and radiation alone, Wilson decided to turn up the heat on her treatment — literally. She enrolled in a clinical trial at the Duke University Medical Center, becoming one of thousands of volunteers who, along with doctors, are hoping that something as simple as heat can improve standard cancer treatment.

"They said, 'what we'll do is we'll fix a table and your breast will lay in a bath of water and we'll sort of microwave your breast' ... and I said 'what?'? Wilson laughs. "That's really what it is."

Duke is one of a handful of research institutions pioneering a new field called hyperthermia. While scientists have known for centuries that heat has healing powers, Duke's Mark Dewhirst has figured out how to harness that heat and direct it right into tumors.

"The temperatures that we are looking for are at the range between 104 and 113 degrees Fahrenheit," Dewhirst says. "At that range, we get the effects we want but we don't burn the tissue."

Wilson says the treatment can get uncomfortable by the end of a session, but the benefits may well be worth the discomfort.

Dewhirst and his colleagues know that the heat weakens tumors in two crucial ways: It damages tumors' cells and it makes the tumors more vulnerable to radiation and chemotherapy

"We can deliver 30 times more drug to a tumor like this than you can with just the free drug itself," he says.

The Duke team is turning up the heat on some of the most stubborn cancers: breast, melanoma, cervical and ovarian. They're designing and developing intricate heating systems as they go. In the next several months, they'll be able to use new equipment to heat up entire bodies in people whose cancer has spread.

Once this study is over, the next step is to get heat therapy approved by the FDA and on the market. That will probably take a few years. But the goal, says Dewhirst, is to one day soon have heat actually being "prescribed," just like a drug.

"I would hope we can have dramatic anti-tumor effects," he says when asked if heat can be a cure. "Whether or not we can cure them is hard to know."

But for now, Wilson isn't worried about a cure. She's content to sit back and think warm — really warm — thoughts.

RE: heating up cancer cells to cure it

I am in remission from stage IIIC ovarian cancer ( 16 months post diagnosis ), and I have been very interested in hyperthermia as an adjunt to other complementary things I am doing to stay in remission. There are things that can be done on your own to use heat therapy. I take a hot bath every day ( as hot as I can stand it ), and I make sure to submerge my entire body ( except for my face ) for at least 15 minutes. Also, whenever I go to gym ( usally about 4 to 5 times a week ), I spend at least 20 minutes in the steam bath after my workout. I have read about both of these things ( hot baths, steam baths ) being a form of hyperthermia that can be done on your own. While it is not the same ( or as effective ) as the procedure mentioned above, it is something that we can do to help ourselves and may help kill some of those nasty cancer cells that tend to linger in our bodies.

RE: heating up cancer cells to cure it

I am in remission from stage IIIC ovarian cancer ( 16 months post diagnosis ), and I have been very interested in hyperthermia as an adjunt to other complementary things I am doing to stay in remission. There are things that can be done on your own to use heat therapy. I take a hot bath every day ( as hot as I can stand it ), and I make sure to submerge my entire body ( except for my face ) for at least 15 minutes. Also, whenever I go to gym ( usally about 4 to 5 times a week ), I spend at least 20 minutes in the steam bath after my workout. I have read about both of these things ( hot baths, steam baths ) being a form of hyperthermia that can be done on your own. While it is not the same ( or as effective ) as the procedure mentioned above, it is something that we can do to help ourselves and may help kill some of those nasty cancer cells that tend to linger in our bodies.

Hi fiestysurvivor with the hot bath I supose as long as the bath water go avove above 107F it should work I remember working in the top north of Austraila the top end in one of the gold minds we were driving a round in a ute checking a site out and I temp got up to 54c thats 129.2F one day you couldent tuch any thing or lean agence any thing you get burned it was so hot you could fry and egg on the bonet of the ute we still had to work it it was grate when we went back to the station and have a ice cold beer.

I hope once this study is over, the next step is to get the heat therapy approved by the FDA and on the market. the problem like all these treatment that work well they cant make as much money as chemo

There is another treatment called Photodynamic Therapy. I just did a post on

It. Our doctors have known about Photodynamic Therapy and heat hyperthermia. Therapy, From way back to the 1930 there have been trials and they work well as I was just saying the thing is at $20,000 a pop for chemo drugs. Doctors make so much money from the chemo and radiation it hard for them to change

The Photodynamic Therapy works with light or sounds some cancer it works better with sound

Photodynamic Therapy. I heard it wont do harm to the body like chemo dos at the moment I think it only done in Mexico not quite sure if it done any were else

How it works if I can remember is A sensitizer is place under the tongue that is selectively absorbed by the body but it is absorbed more by the cancer cells, and is rapidly cleared from healthy cells. On high stage cancer an IV is use to deliver more of the Sensitizer

After that a source of energy (light or sound) is introduce that can activate the sensitizer. Then the oxygen in the cancer cell reacts with the activated sensitizer to form free radicals in the cancer cells it over loads the cancer cell and kills them I know it very effective

RE: heating up cancer cells to cure it

From my research on hyperthermia, I undertand that 107 degrees is hot enough to kill cancer cells, however, at 102 degrees, cancer cells can be damaged ( making them less effective and more vulnerable to other treatments, even the immune system ), and at 104 degrees, some cancer cells will die. My baths are usually between 104-105 degrees ( I use a floating tugboat thermometer that I had to check the water temperature when my daughter was a baby ! ). I believe submerging myself in water this hot may be beneficial in causing damage to cancer cells, and I know that temperatures this warm are beneficial in increasing T-cell counts ( that is a whole other area of research on heat therapy ). The steam baths at the gym are well above 107 degrees, and because it is moist heat, it is easily tolerated. These are two simple things that anyone can do to give a boost to the immune system, relax your body, and hopefully do some damage to those nasty cancer cells !

RE: heating up cancer cells to cure it

This is a very promising procedure, however the term "microwave" sums it up best. The heat has to be directed at the tumor...or cancer. Sitting out in the sun during a heatwave or soaking in the sauna or hot bath will not heat you up inside and just makes you hot and sweaty.

RE: heating up cancer cells to cure it

I disagree with your assertion that steam heat, sauna, and hot baths cannot raise your body temperature enough to make a difference. While not the same as the specific medical procedures brought up above, whole body hyperthermia is proven to be an effective adjunct treatment.

RE: heating up cancer cells to cure it

From my research on hyperthermia, I undertand that 107 degrees is hot enough to kill cancer cells, however, at 102 degrees, cancer cells can be damaged ( making them less effective and more vulnerable to other treatments, even the immune system ), and at 104 degrees, some cancer cells will die. My baths are usually between 104-105 degrees ( I use a floating tugboat thermometer that I had to check the water temperature when my daughter was a baby ! ). I believe submerging myself in water this hot may be beneficial in causing damage to cancer cells, and I know that temperatures this warm are beneficial in increasing T-cell counts ( that is a whole other area of research on heat therapy ). The steam baths at the gym are well above 107 degrees, and because it is moist heat, it is easily tolerated. These are two simple things that anyone can do to give a boost to the immune system, relax your body, and hopefully do some damage to those nasty cancer cells !

wow Thank you. Im going to try the hot bath I dont know why I never thought of it befor good one. I advance prostrate cancer, and doctors would not do the RP surgery to remove my prostrate on fear of spread more cancer though my body. A year ago I once had cancer to the bone but through the alternative treatment Im doing last scans found it gone be cause of this a young doctor here in my home town said he could do the surgery he metered sounded pretty advance. He would go in through the periamnil between the anus and the testys . This way it’s lest chance of nerve damage. He said his patient recover better. All the alternative treatment has help me ride my body of most of the micro cancers cells. But I don’t know why but my psa showed I still have prostrate cancer, and I found just lately all the alterative stuff Im doing for my prostrate ant working as will as before, Im finding it harder to go to the toilet lately. Im going to try the hot baths see how it go’s. Ill let you know how it go’s and thank you Ray

RE: heating up cancer cells to cure it

Good luck to you ! As I always tell everyone, I will try almost anything in my quest to stay in remission as long as it can't hurt me, and exposing ourselves to hot water certainly can't hurt ( unless it is too hot and you scald yourself ! ). Try to make the water as hot as you can stand - for me, I cannot stand it any hotter than 105 degrees. Unfortunately, I have a modern home with the smaller bathtub, so submerging myself is not easy. But, I have found the baths to be very relaxing . I just lay back and soak for at least 15 minutes. If the water starts to get too cool, I drain a little water and add hot water all over again. You can also add baking soda to the bath to help pull toxins from your skin while you soak as well. In addition to heating up the cancer cells, stimulating your immune system, and helping you to relax, a hot bath is great skin detoxifyer. I do believe it can help us. Take care and God bless.

RE: heating up cancer cells to cure it

Hello, I have been following a treatment that heats cancer to kill it and it has been 100% effective in animals. It is now being researched by 4 major cancer centers and all are excited about it's potential. It uses nanoparticles and radio frequency to heat tumors and kills them anywhere in the body. They are finding that it can be useful to treat any kind of cancer and aids and infections also. I know this all sounds like a bunch of bs but it's true. It was on 60 minutes and many news casts. Some of the videos on the internet, like the 60 minutes interview, are about a year or so old and they have come a long way with their research since then. It was invented by a man that has no medical knowledge or college degree and done in his garage. Check out his website www.kanziuscancerresearch.com. Watch the 60 minutes video posted on his site to learn about his research and the other videos to find how far they have come. It's very interesting.